September 29, 2008

Credit Mess Over The Credit Mess

Compare the top image — of Senate minority leader McConnell and majority leader Reid in the Capitol last Monday — with the second, which leads the current bailout story in the NYT.

With the astronomical bipartisan bailout package on the verge of passage, I haven’t seen a shot of Dems and Repubs standing together since, well, McCain blew through town. I don’t think the edginess in the second shot is accidental, by the way. The hand could as well represent Congressman Frank ready to catching his own head when the Repubs hand it to him and the Dems for getting out in front of this legislation.

Right now I’m watching Pelosi and Reid, Frank and Dodd stand there all by themselves taking “credit” for this bill. They are handing out plaudits to all the others who “helped” them get it done like members of “the Hills” at the MTV awards.

The optics are all wrong. If they really feel they have to do this thing each one of them should have a Republican under each arm every time they make an announcement.

(image 1: Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times, September 22, 2008. image 2: Andrew Councill for The New York Times, August 28, 2008)